Billy

It was yet another cold and wet night on board the container ship, hundreds and hundreds of bloody containers. Billy had many jobs on board the ship; his present task was to patrol amongst the many gangways of the containers. This was his first such trip on board after completing his training. Ten weeks of this, it would drive him mad he thought. He had joining the ship in Felixstowe a little over ten days before, since then they had briefly stopped in Rotterdam, his only view of continental Europe had been of thousands of containers lined up on the dockside ready for whatever ship to take them all around the world.

Billy had never been overseas before, apart from his months spent at the training college he had hardly ever left his home town and he liked the idea of being away from there for a long time, the longer the better. Too many ghosts in the closet back there for him.

They were well out into the Atlantic, heading south. If he had done better on his course he may have been offered a position on board a cruise liner, instead he had underachieved and this giant box of a boat was to be his home on the ocean for the foreseeable future.

He walked along the gangway between the many boxes. There were dozens of assorted logos painted on the sides, all going off to many different destinations. He suddenly heard an unusual sound amongst the many all around him, he thought he heard a scream. No, he had just imagined it; the wind and his overactive mind playing tricks on him. Anyway if he reported it, he would be in front of the captain and he would be labeled as a scared newbie. Billy thought the captain was already in his cabin and wouldn't want to be disturbed for such trivial things. If he actually found a body whilst patrolling, he would have to say something then. He leaned against the railing, staring out into the night as his mind, once again started to drift onto something else.

The captain was new to the ship, a bit of a surprise as nobody amongst the crew was expecting anyone new. As well as the captain there were only two other westerners amongst the crew, both of them were also officers. Billy hoped one day to become one himself. The rest of the crew was all made up of Filipino's, about a dozen that he thought he had seen. They kept very much to themselves, the only one Billy had really spoken with was the steward whenever they were being served their meals in the galley. Ramon was his name, and if Billy didn't get back to the galley fast he would miss his meal. In his rush he walked past a container with its custom's security seal broken open. He would be in big trouble if someone else spotted that first!

On entering the officers' galley, Billy was surprised to see the captain sitting there. "I have been observing you from the bridge" he uttered, "is everything in order on the deck"?

"Yes, all is ok, nothing to report, captain." Billy answered.

"Have you seen the steward?" The captain asked Billy.

"Ramon was his name I do believe." He added.

"No sir, I was outside doing my patrol." Billy answered, he then added. "Is Ramon not in his cabin, Sir"?

"He has not been seen for over an hour, very unusual to go missing like that!" As the captain dismissed the thought that anyone would going missing on his ship.

Billy thought for a moment to mention that he may have heard a scream, but decided that maybe at this time it would be better to say nothing.

Over the next two days, as well as Ramon going missing on two or was it three occasions screams could be heard.

They could be heard, but was anyone actually close enough to hear them? They stopped at a port in Africa, again no chance of going ashore. These short turnarounds meant no visiting of any local bars for Billy. "When would he ever get to go ashore"? He asked himself. Apart from the small snippets of news Billy heard whenever he was in the galley, anything could be going on in the outside world and he would know nothing of it.

The next morning as he started his patrolling of the containers Billy was aware of how quiet it was. "Where were the Filipino crewmen"? He would have to stop his habit of talking to himself, if anyone overheard they may think he was mad.

Come to think of it he hadn't seen any of them since they left port the previous evening.

A smile came to his face as he thought that the few that remained must have jumped overboard after loading was completed, or as they were leaving port. The over pompous new captain would have some explaining to do to his superiors when that news filters back to head office. "His first voyage on this ship too! Ha Ha!" Billy laughed a little too loudly to himself.

Billy guessed right that now the only remaining personnel on board the ship were the officers. Since the disappearance of Ramon the meals had been of a lesser standard and he was not surprised when the breakfast this morning was a help yourself affair.

Billy found he was used more like a general laborer than a trainee officer, he seldom found himself on the bridge, and any learning of his new career seemed to be put on hold for the time being. His work schedule would be pinned to the notice board each morning and he would go off to whatever part of the ship required his attention.

This particular morning he found himself wandering into the engine room, an area he had not been in before. Very noisy and dirty was his first impression, also the fact that he could see no sign of the ships engineer; he knew enough about the ship to know that it could be pretty much controlled exclusively from the bridge, but where was the engineer?

In fact where was anybody, he had been on duty for over two hours and not seen a sole in that time. As the day progressed his anxiety became deeper, firstly who was on the bridge?

Was the captain in position there?

If not, what should he do?

Where were the rest of the ships officers?

He decided it was time to forget about his duties and find out just what was going on. To start with he would go up to the bridge and check with the captain. If it got him a reprimand then so what, if he got sacked and put ashore at the next port it wouldn't be the end of the world. Surely they would have to repatriate him back to his home country, wouldn't they?

What country would the next port of call be anyway?

It was a lot warmer now, and getting to be quite hot, he dreamt of somewhere tropical, full of lots of women and cheap beer, "or cheap women and beer". He said aloud, although there was not a soul within hearing distance of Billy. It would be quite a sacrifice to be marooned there for a while until he was sent back to his home.

On entering the bridge, it was just like a ghost ship. He tried checking the radio, nothing; he couldn't make contact with anyone, no signs of other ships anywhere on the radar either. On a plus point there was no sign of any land either, but the ship appeared to be progressing across the ocean at a snails pace.

He was on a giant ship all alone at sea; it was a mostly flat sea now the stormy weather had passed. He couldn't just stay where he was, out in the middle of the ocean. Billy had to do something. He tried unsuccessfully, several times, to adjust the speed of the ship. He didn't know where he was, how far he was from land, or if and when he found land where geographically that land would be.

He could see the way ahead and night was beginning to fall, and as the light on the ship became less, he imagined that he could see strange shadows appearing across the ship. He started to feel very vulnerable, here all alone. As a safety measure he locked all the doors coming into the bridge, but why should he feel that way, because it was he that had pushed all the rest of the crew overboard, or killed them as they slept, loading the bodies into the empty container with the broken customs seal. "Was that land he could see ahead?" He asked himself once more.

Now how do I stop this thing, I knew I should have paid more attention during that class.